While it could be argued that anyone will sound like Yoda if you rearrange their sentences in the characteristic way, Tim Suttle still seems to be onto something when he singles out these quotes as having a Yoda-like quality to them:
“The mark of spiritual insecurity, anxiety is.”
“The most heroic labor and the most difficult sacrifice, peace demands.”
“The path to faith reason is; when reason can say no more, takes over faith does.”
“More about ourselves than about Him, our idea of God tells us”
“Done in the classrooms, the least of learning is ”
“The absolute extreme of self-love, despair is .”
“The door to the full inner life of the Church, faith is.”
“Entirely too much privacy, to be unknown to God is.”
“To find ourselves and loose ourselves at the same time, art enables us .”
“A spiritual stability too deep for violence, the peace produced by grace is. Unshakeable, it is ”
Click through for the originals – or just rearrange them yourselves.
What do you think? Can other quotes from Merton, or quotes from other mystics, fit equally well or better? Does this tell us anything useful either about Yoda or about Merton?
See also Suttle’s post explaining why he is confident that J. J. Abrams is not going to botch the new Star Wars movies.
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